“Juden Raus!” (Jews Out!) – History's most - Board Game Studies

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B OARD G AME S TUDIES 6, 2003
is either on his way either to the central square, or coming back from it, to land on several
marked squares, and consequently to collect several hats to bring to the collection
point. When he has handed in six hats, he must go back to the central square. If he is
the first to do this, he wins First Prize.
Published by Günther and Co., D.”
Possible Origins and Reconstruction
“Jews Out!” is a modified race game with two versions of the rules given. The first
version is a simple game of chance with no interaction between the players. The second
version adds a little more strategy to the game and is similar in feeling to “Parchisi” or
“The Hyena Game” (Bell 1979). The main source for the game was certainly “Fang den
Hut” (English title “Trap the Cap”), a game published by Otto Maier Verlag,
Ravensburg, as early as 1927 and still distributed today in various countries (Glonnegger
1999: 23-24). Two different versions of “Fang den Hut” exist, one version is for six players.
The game board uses a graphic of a wagon wheel, with pieces able to move along
squares on the diameter of the circle and also on the spokes running straight from the
outer edge of the circle to the center (figure 5). It was obviously this board that was
adopted by the author of “Juden Raus!”. But the game board lay out, inspired by the
modern design of the Bauhaus, underwent some changes: “Juden Raus!” depicts a
medieval town with an irregular city wall and streets instead of the outer circle and the
straight spokes seen in “Fang den Hut”. The black fields of “Fang den Hut” where the
caps were captured became Jewish storefronts. A further difference to “Fang den Hut”,
where the counters can move around the circle and along the spokes, pieces in “Juden
Fig. 5. “Fang den Hut” (photograph U. Schädler, Swiss Museum of Games).